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About Me

Photo by Nina Subin

I started my career at United Press International in Providence, Rhode Island and have worked as a journalist and editor in Washington, DC, Southern California, London and New York.

Some of my major stories include: the tragic impact of nuclear waste poisoning in Chelyabinsk, one of the “secret” cities in the former Soviet Union; the puzzling clusters of teenage suicide in a Colorado town; the courageous efforts to create a “peace” university in Northern Ireland; the genesis and moral complexity of the government’s decision to compensate victims of the September 11 attacks; and an in-depth look at high school Advanced Placement tests and the high failure rate among African Americans and Hispanics.

From 2005 to 2015 I wrote the biweekly Shortcuts column for The New York Times business section, which, in 2011, received a Best in Business award for personal finance writing from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.

I have also been awarded several fellowships and grants, including an Investigative Fund grant, a National Press Foundation Fellowship and the Yale Fellowship in Law for Journalists. And, as of 2018, I am proud to say I am a senior fellow at FutureEd

Since I love books and my friends and I are always looking for good ones, I thought I would post a list of some of my favorite books that I’ve read in the last decade or so. Most of these are more or less in the order that I’ve read them and for space I’m not including the great old classics. I’d love to hear your suggestions.’